ENSENADA, Mexico—While deservedly grabbing the majority of the headlines will be the battle in the marquee SCORE Trophy Truck division for 850-horsepower high-tech, unlimited production trucks, this week’s internationally-televised iconic 49th annual SCORE Baja 1000 desert race will also include everyman racers from across the U.S. and around the world along with nearly two dozen cross-over racers from other motorsports disciplines as well as business leaders and entertainers.

Season finale of the four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship, this year’s competition will be a loop race, starting and finishing in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, 65 miles south of the U.S. Border at San Diego.

Season class point titles as well as the SCORE Overall point championship of the 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship will be decided in multiple classes for cars, trucks, utvs, motorcycles and quads. In all, this year’s talented field includes 82 racers who have combined for 292 class wins in the legendary Granddaddy of all Desert Races. Included in that total are 12 racers who have combined for 29 overall race wins in either four-wheel or two-wheel categories. There is also at least one racer who won an overall title in each of the last 10 years.

GREEN FLAG

Like so many other past years the iconic race is helping celebrate the 106th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Motorcycle and Quad classes will leave the start line, one vehicle at a time in the elapsed-time race, starting at 6 a.m. PT Friday with the car and truck classes beginning their odyssey starting at 10:30 a.m. PT Friday in a similar single-file procession into the majestic mysterious and foreboding northern portion of Mexico’s spectacular Baja California Peninsula.

With pre-running in its final days on the 854.50-mile race course, nearly 275 entries, from 32 U.S. States and 17 countries racing in Pro and Sportsman classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads are expected to take the green flag. While the fastest vehicles in the elapsed-time race are expected to finish in around 17 hours, all vehicles will have a 36 hour time limit from the time each started to become an official finisher in the epic event.

BEGINNING TO END

This year’s race will start for the 42nd time and finish for the 24th time in Ensenada. The start line and finish line will once again be adjacent to the iconic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center in the heart of Ensenada and the first and last several spectator-friendly miles running up and back down the Ensenada Arroyo.

PRE-GREEN

The race week festivities will be held today through Sunday, with the race and all side events starting and finishing in Ensenada.

Pre-race festivities on Thursday for the SCORE Baja 1000, including the vastly popular tech and contingency of all vehicles and the SCORE Manufacturer’s Midway will be held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT on Boulevard Costero in front of the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center. The pre-race mandatory driver/rider briefing will also be held on Thursday at 7 p.m. PT in the Cathedral Room at the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center.

Racer registration will be held in the Red Room at the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center in Ensenada. Racer registration will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT on Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT on Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT on Thursday.

Media registration will be held as well in the Red Room at the Riviera from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. PT on Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT on Thursday and the BFGoodrich Tires/Baja California Secretary of Tourism SCORE Media Center will be open on Friday at 5:30 a.m. PT until the course closes at approximately 12:30 a.m. PT on Sunday and will re-open on Sunday from 8 a.m. until Noon PT.

Two special Monster Energy parties will be held before the race starts. On Wednesday from 7 p.m. to Midnight PT at the Riviera del Pacifico Cultural center will be the SCORE Baja 1000 Goes Green Monster Energy Party for racers and SCORE staff. On Thursday, the night before the start of the race, the Monster Energy SCORE Papas & Beer Fan Fest Street Party will be held on Avenida Ruiz in front of Papas & Beer from 8 p.m. to midnight PT.

GLOBAL INTEREST

In addition to the 32 States represented on the entry list to date, racers have officially entered from 18 countries. In addition to the United States, entries so far have come fromAustralia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, England, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand, Venezuela and theUS Territory of Guam.

POST GREEN

As the celebration continues all-night on Friday, all day and evening on Saturday while official finishers cross the line and tales are added to the legacy of the event, the post-race awards fiesta will be held in the Cathedral Room at the Riviera starting at 10 a.m. PT on Sunday.

SCORE COURSE ‘SUPREMO’

As it has for over four decades, SCORE has put together another agonizingly memorable race course, this one for a loop race, with all of the foreboding, unforgiving terrain that the northern state of the majestic Baja California peninsula has to offer. SCORE CEO/President Roger Norman and SCORE Race Director Jose A. Grijalva have designed and finalized this year’s SCORE Baja 1000 race course.

Starting and finishing in the heart of Ensenada in front of the historic Riviera del Pacifico Cultural Center, the course travels in a counter-clockwise direction. It includes the approximate 20 mile stretch to Ojos Negros which is used in both directions. Outgoing, the course heads south from Ojos Negros through Santo Tomas and then runs along the picturesque Pacific Ocean for over 100 miles and then back across to the center of Baja California Norte.

The 854.50-mile course covers both sides of the peninsula and includes four checkpoints and 122 viritual checkpoints. There are also a total of 14 speed zone restriction areas for a total of approximately 115 race miles.

The race will have its normal start from Ensenada to Piedras Gordas, then out to highway 3 around Rm 20.7 and will go to Km33 and get back on the dirt. The course will go past Rancho Grijalva to El Mezcal (Rm 39.6) and head to Uruapan using La Lagrima Rd, a different road than in past years.

From Santo Tomas, the course heads to the coast of the Pacific Ocean at La Calabera and runs down nearly 100 miles to San Quintin, Nuevo Odisea and then to El Rosario. The course will travel zig zag up the well known hill La Vivora, el Arenoso, and will loop around from San Juan de Dios at approximate Rm305 to El Metate Rm 340, Los Martires Rm 363 and go back to San Quintin on the east side of the highway and run north to Col. Vicente Guerrero, Jaramillo and Colonet.

The course will travel a new route from Colonet to Llano Colorado and across to Valley de Trinidad. The race course goes along the highway from San Matias to Villa del Sol then crossing the highway at El Chinero, north to Coabuso Junction and then out to Borrego, up Highway 1 and up the goat trail to checkpoint 4 Nuevo Junction. From there it will be on to Catarina then back to Ojos Negros and from Ojos Negros back to the finish line.

This year’s race will again commemorate the achievements of legendary desert racers like Rod Hall, Ron Bishop, Johnny Johnson, and Larry Roeseler. Hall, who will turn 79 on Nov. 22, has a record 23 class wins (including one overall win in 1972), and is the only racer who has competed in all 48 SCORE Baja 1000 races. Bishop, who passed away in 2014, was the only racer who competed in the first 40 SCORE Baja 1000 races all on a motorcycle.

Hall will be racing this year in the Stock Full class with his son Chad Hall as he attempts to add to his untouchable legacy.

Roeseler, has won 17 times in this race, including 13 overall wins (10 on a motorcycle). Roeseler will share driving duties this year in SCORE Trophy Truck with Andy McMillin (five class wins, four overalls in this race) in the No. 31 NexGen Fuels Ford F-150. Roeseler won the unlimited Class 1 for four consecutive years (2004-2007), driving with the youngest of the three racing brothers, Troy Herbst, in the Smithbuilt-Ford open-wheel desert race car that was known as the ‘Land Shark’. Roeseler is the only racer in the history of the event to win the overall 4-wheel in a truck and also in a car as well as the overall 2-wheel title as well.

In 2008, Roeseler split the driving with driver of record and team owner and now SCORE owner Roger Norman when they were the overall 4-wheel and SCORE Trophy Truck champions and the pair was second in 2009. In 2010, Roger Norman drove solo the length of the peninsula and finished third overall.

Retired from racing, Johnson had 15 class wins in the SCORE Baja 1000, amazingly in eight different classes.

TIGHT POINTS

Several classes enter the 49th Baja 1000 with very tight title point’s races for the SCORE season championship in each class. Classes that seem to have the closest battles for the 2016 championships are SCORE Trophy Truck, Class 1, Trophy Truck Spec, Class 10, Class 7, Pro UTV FI and Pro Moto 40.

Leading the multiple class winners in this race to the starting line this year is the venerable Rod Hall, who has 23 class wins as the all-time race leader and he will be racing in the Stock Full class this year. Second all-time is Larry Roeseler with 17 class wins and he will be in SCORE Trophy Truck this year.

The other racers with the most class wins in the field this year are led by motorcycle age-group riders Jim O’Neal (12), Jeff Kaplan (11) and Francisco Septien (7).

In keeping of the holiday season in the United States, picking the winner in the featured SCORE Trophy Truck division is, as always, a proverbial ‘turkey shoot.’

While there is a tight, three-way battle for first place in the season point championship, a host of entries in SCORE Trophy Truck could easily win this year’s SCORE Baja 1000 if not the season title.

Billy Wilson, the 30-year old SCORE Trophy Truck ‘rookie’ from Corpus Christi, Texas, is leading the season point standings with 223 points in the No. 15 Bevly Wilson Racing Chevy Silverado. Defending season point champion Carlos ‘Apdaly’ Lopez and his father Juan C. Lopez, both of Tecate, Mexico, is second in points with 217 in the No. 1 RPM Racing Chevy Rally Truck while third is prominent international entrepreneur Gary Magness of Denver is third with 199 points in the No. 45 Mango Racing Chevy Silverado.

Lurking behind that trio, the 31-SCORE Trophy Truck field includes two-time defending race champion Rob MacCachren of Las Vegas in the No. 11 Rockstar Energy MacCachren Motorsports Ford F-150 who has three SCORE Trophy Truck wins in this race (2007, 2014, 2015) and is looking to become only the third team behind the legendary Larry Ragland (1995, 1996, 1997) and the dynamic duo of David Ashley/Dan Smith (2000, 2001, 2002) to win three straight years.

Splitting driving with MacCachren, the all-time winningest SCORE Trophy Truck racer with 13 career race wins will be Jason Voss, Cupertino Valley, Calif., who won in 2014 with MacCachren and Andy McMillin.

San Diego’s Andy McMillin, a third generation desert racer who has his two cousins Dan and Luke McMillin each contenders in this race as well in their SCORE Trophy Trucks, is also racing for a three-peat as he won the last two years with MaCachren.

In the sport’s newest dream team, Andy McMillin, who has five SCORE Trophy Truck victories in this race (2006, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015) has teamed this year with legendary SCORE Baja racer Larry Roeseler in the No. 31 NexGen Fuels Ford F-150.

Roeseler, Martinez, Calif., has 17 class wins in this race including 13 overalls and is the only racer in history who has won this race on a motorcycle (10 times), race car (twice) and in SCORE Trophy Truck (2008 with current SCORE CEO/President Roger Norman).

Besides MacCachren (2014, 2015), A. McMillin has won SCORE Trophy Truck in this race teamed with his father Scott McMillin (2009, 2011) and with Robby Gordon (2006).

Gordon has teamed this year with veteran SCORE desert racer Damen Jefferies, Apple Valley, Calif. and has been given permission to use the No. 200 on his SCORE Trophy Truck for this race in honor of his father ‘Baja’ Bob Gordon, a mentor to many racers and a multi-time SCORE Baja race champion, who died tragically in September.

Nearly 275 cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads from 35 U.S. States and 20 countries are expected to take the green flag on Friday.

So far among the car, truck and UTV classes, SCORE Trophy Truck has the most entries with 31, followed by Class 10 with 22, Pro UTV FI with 21, Trophy Truck Spec with 20, the unlimited Class 1 and Pro UTV with 15 each, SCORE Lites with 12 and Baja Challenge with 10 officially entered to date.

Among the motorcycle classes, the Pro Moto Ironman (solo rider) has 10 entries followed by Pro Moto Unlimited class and the Pro Moto 40 (m/c riders over 40 years old) with six entries each and Pro Moto Limited with five entries so far.

In the Sportsman classes, leading the way is Sportsman Motorcycle with 15 entries to date.

BFGOODRICH TIRES UNMATCHED

BFGoodrich Tires is celebrating over four decades as a major player in SCORE Baja racing. In addition to being the official tire of SCORE International for four decades, BFGoodrich Tires has produced the tire of choice for 27 of the overall 4-wheel vehicle winners in the Bud Light SCORE Baja 1000, including 27 of the last 30 years that featured a record-run of 20 straight from 1986 through 2005.

In total, BFGoodrich Tires has now be the tire of choice for the overall 4-wheel vehicle winner in 86 SCORE Baja races including 31 in the SCORE Baja 500.

BFGoodrich Tires also provides unmatched pit support for pre-registered racers using their tires with five full-service pit areas along the race course out of and back into Ensenada along with complete radio relay the entire 854.50 miles.

BFGoodrich Tires will also award $10,000 contingency money to the overall winners of this year’s SCORE Baja 1000 running exclusively on their tires.

CBS SPORTS NETWORK COVERAGE

All races in the four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship, along with the special SEMA SCORE Baja 1000 Experience and qualifying for the SCORE Baja 1000 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway are once again airing in the USA and Canada on the CBS Sports Network. The spectacular shows feature not only SCORE Trophy Truck coverage, but also top action and highlights from many other classes of trucks, cars, UTVs, motorcycles and quads – making sure that the most exciting footage and most compelling stories continue as part of each race event broadcast.

Capping off the 2016 broadcast season, the SCORE Baja 1000 broadcast on CBS Sports Network will air as a full two-hour special for the second straight year.

CBS Sports Network is available across the country through local cable, video and telco providers and via satellite on DirecTV Channel 221 and Dish Network Channel 158. For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com.

DUST2GLORY

From award-winning documentary filmmaker Dana Brown, Dust2Glory will chronicle each of the four races in the 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship. Now, D2G, which began shooting at last year’s SCORE Baja 1000, and is continuing up close and personal coverage capturing the robust racers in their amazing adventures in Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula through all four spectacular 2016 races ending with this year’s 49th SCORE Baja 1000. It is scheduled for theatrical release in mid-2017.

SCOREscope

The four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship includes four special events and for the first time all four are being held in Baja California, Mexico. Here is the complete 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship schedule:

ENSENADA, Mexico—With the conclusion of advance registration, 258 total entries have been processed as official entries for Friday’s start of the internationally televised 49th SCORE Baja 1000, the final round of the four-race 2016 SCORE World Desert Championship. Late on-site racer registration will be held today, Wednesday and Thursday in Ensenada with approximately 20 late entries expected.

Starting and finishing in Ensenada with classes for cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads from 32 U.S. States, 18 countries, the elapsed-time race over a grueling 854.50-mile course covering much of Baja California Norte will start at 6 a.m. PT on Friday for the motorcycle/quad classes following by the start of the car/truck/UTV classes at 10:30 a.m. PT. While the fastest finishers are expected to complete the course in approximately 17 hours, all vehicles will have 36 hours from the time each starts to become an official finisher in the iconic Granddaddy of all Desert Races. As of today (Tuesday, Nov. 15), here is the entry list for the race, by class (in starting order within each class), with vehicle number and name, age, hometown of the driver/rider of record, co-drivers/riders…